Chapter 28 - The Federal Gate
Towering twelve feet high and reinforced with crisscrossing strands of razor wire, the main security gate of the Harlow Federal Rail Depot stood dead ahead, its heavy electronic locking mechanism glowing with a steady, unyielding red status light. Beyond the gate sat a dozen empty freight cars and a federal customs inspection station housing armed transit police officers.
"They're not going to open for a civilian vehicle crashing through the district at ninety miles an hour," Eleanor noted, squinting through the cracked windshield at the guard booth where two federal officers had just stepped outside, their hands resting on the holstered service pistols at their hips.
"They will if we give them the right paperwork," Lena said, reaching into her jacket pocket and pulling out the heavy manila envelope containing Meridian's forged guardianship petition and the classified water rights transfer contracts.
She didn't slow down as they approached the reinforced steel gate. Instead, she flashed the SUV's high beams three times in rapid succession—the universal military signal for an emergency distress entry—and hit the air horn with a long, continuous blast that echoed off the corrugated metal walls of the surrounding warehouses.
The two federal transit officers scrambled forward, leveling their handguns toward the oncoming vehicle. "Stop the vehicle! Turn off the engine and put your hands on the dashboard!" one of them shouted through a megaphone, his voice straining over the screaming V8 engine.
Lena didn't stop. She brought the Ford Explorer to a screeching, sliding halt exactly three feet from the steel gate, the front bumper resting against the electronic keypad housing. Before the officers could reach the driver's side door, Lena shoved her military ID card and the manila envelope flat against the glass of the rolled-down window.
"Major Lena Vance, United States Army Intelligence, retired!" she shouted, her voice cutting through the night air with absolute, unquestionable authority. "We are active targets of an unauthorized corporate extraction squad operating within the Third Judicial District under false federal pretexts. Open this gate right now under emergency Title 18 provisions, or you are aiding and abetting an active felony assault on a federal witness!"
The lead officer froze, staring first at the gold-embossed military identification card pressed against the glass, then at the heavy corporate seal on the manila envelope, and finally down the dark, empty street behind them where the distant sound of approaching police sirens was beginning to echo off the brick buildings.
"Step out of the vehicle with your hands visible, Major," the officer said cautiously, though his finger moved away from his holster and hit the heavy master release switch on his belt radio. "And keep your hands where I can see them."
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With a loud, pneumatic *clack*, the heavy electronic locks on the razor-wire gate disengaged, and the steel barrier slowly swung outward into the rainy night just as the first black Meridian tactical SUV rounded the corner two blocks away.
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